Last election, Australians emphatically voted for change. But #Budget2022 – the first budget from the Albanese Government – gives us more of the same old shit that fails to address the issues that matter the most. Here’s a bit of a breakdown: (🧵)
TAX CUTS ✂️ Labor had a choice: deliver tax cuts for the rich or immediate cost of living relief for the rest of us. They know wages will go backwards and flatline, and unemployment, rent and bills will all rise, and they still gave billionaires and politicians a $9k/yr tax cut.
HOUSING 🏠 One million homes? Hardly. Labor’s big new budget announcement only funds 10,000 new homes, with the mere *hope* that private developers will essentially build the rest 🙄
CLIMATE ☀️ While the climate crisis ravages the country, there’s $2b in new handouts to the gas industry. This budget also shovels at least $40b into continued fossil fuel subsidies, and includes millions for fracking the Beetaloo in the NT.
DISABILITY🦽 The good: it looks like there’ll be a funding increase to NDIS participants’ plans, but whether it’s enough for folks to get what they need remains to be seen. The bad: insufficient funding for NDIS staffing, insufficient funding for disability advocacy orgs.
HEALTH 🩺 Nothing for preventative health, nothing for dental into Medicare, nothing for ADHD/autism into Medicare. No increase in mental health funding under Medicare – but more funding for headspace, a service that is not meeting the needs of many young people.
INCOME SUPPORT 💰 Zero increase. None. Jobseeker, DSP, carer payments – they all stay the same. Labor acknowledges the cost of living is spiralling at the same time they make the explicit decision to keep people in poverty.
WOMEN 👩 Most new initiatives are a ‘re-prioritisation’ of existing funding. Paid parental leave is up from 18 to 26 weeks, but it’s too slow to roll out and won’t provide super or provide replacement wages. Funding for family and domestic violence services doesn’t meet demand.
MILITARY 🪖 A funding increase of 8% in 2022-23, equating to more than 2% of GDP over the coming three years – an absolute insult to spend that much on instruments of war given the cost of living pressures and rampant climate change impacts.
EDUCATION 👨🎓 Over the next three years, private schools get $70b while public funding is $45b. Private schools get $1.7b *more* in funding than Morrison gave them, and there’s a continued $61m in dangerous school chaplaincy programs.
The Labor Government knows what we all need to live a good life – they have simply decided not to prioritise it. This budget thumbs its nose at every single one of us. It doesn’t just fail to address the crises we face – it exacerbates them. Tldr; different party, same old shit.
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